Ireland's roaring R&D recruitment

Top financial firms are targeting Ireland for new R&D units.

Fidelity Investments - the largest mutual funds company in the US - is creating 49 new jobs at a new research and development centre in Galway over the next three years. And Merrill Lynch recently launched a new €30m research, development and innovation (RDI) centre at its south Dublin offices.

Spokespeople for the companies say the quality of Ireland's workforce is behind the rush of R&D jobs: "Ireland is a hub for our centre of excellence in the areas of finance, technology, operations, equities, debts and a certain part of the global wealth management business," says Mike Ryan, chief executive of Merrill Lynch International Bank and general manager, Ireland.

"The RDI staff will have specialist knowledge in telecoms or technology and we hope there will be a cluster effect thanks to the likes of Salesforce.com, Dell and Microsoft, which are all within a mile of here," he adds.

"The quality of the Irish workforce, the success of our existing Irish operations and the world-class research carried out in the Irish universities were key factors in our decision to expand in Ireland," says Paul Murtagh, managing director of Fidelity Technology Group Ireland.

We're told candidates for the R&D roles at both companies will need both IT skills and familiarity with financial services. Staff at Merrill Lynch are currently working on projects associated with margin finance and business processing outsourcing, for example.